Red Riding Hood 2003 Giacomo Cimini Review

By tdf, December 28, 2014

 

With her father gunned down, her mother present whilst absent, the mischievous star of this story is a joy to behold. Stating her credo early doors as…

“Now I know what I want – to improve my education, serve justice, reinstate truth, basically what my father would have wanted me to do.”

What a beautiful yet doomed outlook for a youngster! Unlike many, Jenny is good to her word, aiming her macabre judicial reckoning on the liars and thieves and general scum whom she encounters in Rome. Her methods are intelligent, her scheming phenomenal and regardless of her…rather brutal methods…she emerges from the story as a delightfully endearing anti-hero.

Had I met a girl like her when I was a nipper I would now be her husband if not slave, perhaps a combination of the two, such is her zeal and fantastically sincere sense of righteousness. This is clearly not the kind of fairytale to show your children, yet at the same time, the original tale had the wolf eating the grandmother and eager to devour the little one. So why not mix it up a little eh? Stick to the horror of the original penmanship and let creative chaos run riot!

Having ploughed my way through the BBC series Luther of late, I couldn’t help but find succulent parallels between Jenny and Alice Morgan. The girl grew up and became something wonderful, vicious, moral and outlandish.

I have always found huge value in rough justice artists, whether they be Travis Bickle, Grant Dewdney or Jean Clause Van Damme. It adds intensity to such proclivities to find a teenage girl in the same league as such titans of the game.

The acting is gracious, the plot moves at a frantic pace and the Roman backdrop is always pleasing to the senses. Highly recommended.